Earlier
by co.0kie
Summary: A young Yuna visits family. Inoffensive oneshot written for an LJ fic community.


"Are we nearly there, Uncle Cid?" The small girl was bouncing up and down, trying to see through the windows of the airship.

"Almost," said Cid, with a smile on his face. He rarely got to see his niece, and it was a particularly rare treat to take her to his home of Bikanel Desert. But, her father had always wanted Yuna to see a little more of Spira than just Bevelle, and, two years after he had died, the arrangement had finally been made. It hadn't been easy – contacting Cid in the first place had been quite a feat for Kimhari and the fourteen-year-old Lulu. Few people on Besaid knew of Yuna's lineage, and they had wanted to keep it that way. So they first had to secure a boat and take Yuna quite far out to sea, where she could then be picked up by Cid's airship. It wasn't easy, but it was the only way.

Now, though, their journey was almost complete. Cid could see the vast expanse of the Desert stretching out in front of them and, soon enough, Home appeared on the horizon.

"Here we are," he said, as the pilot guided the ship down into the landing bay. Yuna hurried down to the hull of the ship to get out, closely followed by Cid. He pressed the button to open the hatch, and Yuna stumbled out. "_Frana ec cra... _I told her you were coming, she said she'd be here to greet -"

"Yunie, Yunie, Yunie!" The high-pitched voice was coming from a very small, skinny girl with a lot of blonde hair who was tearing towards Yuna with almost shocking speed. She flung her arm's around Yuna's neck add spun her around, jumping up and down as she did.

Yuna, who wasn't used to so much energy and physical contact was stunned into silence for few moments, but when she was released, was able to respond in her quiet, polite voice, "It's good to see you, Rikku." She gave a small smile that did not hide her happiness at seeing her cousin. The last time they had met, Yuna was five and Rikku only three. Now, at seven and nine, they were both quite grown up.

Rikku grinned a huge grin, and started dragging Yuna by her hand. "Come on, I'll take you exploring."

- - -

Yuna and Rikku had been out on the sand dunes near Home for about an hour now, and their friendship from younger years had reformed in the way friendships do so easily at that age. They walked and talked, occasionally taking sips of water from the flask in Rikku's backpack. After walking straight on for another thirty minutes or so, Yuna was starting to get anxious of their spacious, ever-stretching surroundings. She didn't want to express her fear to Rikku, though, so instead said, "Should we be getting back soon?"

"Oh, I guess," Rikku shrugged. "C'mon, it's this way…" She turned around and took an uncertain step. "No, wait, maybe not…" She looked over her shoulder, then span around on the spot. "Umm… Gimme a second, I'll be right back." With that alarming speed of hers, she took off, running up and over a sand dune. After a few nervous seconds, Yuna heard a scream.

"What? What is it?" She instinctively charged over the dune after her cousin, to see the smaller girl face to face with a large, dog-like fiend. Rikku seemed paralysed with fear – the least animated Yuna had seen her all day. "What do we do?" Yuna asked.

"I don't know!" Rikku said in a very high, thin voice. Yuna tried to formulate a plan – _What would Father do _– but nothing came to her. She closed her eyes and covered her face after seeing the fiend curl its upper lip into a growl. The next thing she heard was a bark, then a scream, then finally a loud bang.

She gasped and her eyes flew open. "What was that?"

The fiend was ruining away in the opposite direction, yelping to itself, but Rikku stood with her hands on her hips, glaring past her cousin's shoulder. Yuna turned around and saw a boy of about her age with a shock of bright blonde hair, walking towards them and looking very pleased with himself.

"Don't worry, girls," he said, "you're safe now."

"Gippal!" Rikku yelled, stamping her foot. "You didn't need to do that, we had it under control!"

Gippal's smile quickly turned into a scowl. "Not from where I was standing. Where have you been? Your father sent me looking for you. Lucky he did, too – you were about to get eaten."

Rikku was getting steadily redder in the face. "Just because _your _mother gave you a few grenades, that's no reason to, you can't just stomp around, you, I, I had it under _control_!"

Yuna was slightly shocked by such a large display of anger coming from such a small person, but Gippal looked unfazed. He merely folded his arms and looked at her in a fairly patronising way. "Oh, Rikku. Rikku, Rikku, Rikku -" at his point she emitted a little scream "- you've got to learn to control that temper, Missy. You dad will never let you work on the machina if you don't show you can be in control.

"Shut _up_!" Rikku's hands were balled in fists. Her face was dark red, and her small frame was quivering with tension. Yuna had no idea that there was someone who could make her so angry. A smirk appeared on Gippal's face.

"C'mon," he said, "we'd better be getting back." He turned around and started heading in the direction of Home (so Yuna presumed). After a second, Rikku walked after him, and Yuna trotted to keep up. Once back at Home, Gippal turned around to give them a wave, then sauntered off. Yuna wondered if she'd see him again, but soon forgot all about him.


End file.
